Conveyor and tray unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9975714-B2
Application number	US-201715437111-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2017
Priority date	Mar 31, 2016
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

A conveyor, including: receiving trays; a conveyance mechanism; and a support supporting the trays, wherein at least one tray except a lowermost tray is supported so as to be selectively positioned at one of a receiving position and an upper position, wherein at least one lower tray except an uppermost tray includes a protruding portion attached to a tray body so as to be selectively positioned at one of a protruding position and a retracted position, and wherein the conveyor includes a force transmitting mechanism for effectuating at least one of (a) a retracting movement of the protruding portion of one of the at least one lower tray from the protruding position to the retracted position caused by an upward movement of an adjacent upper tray disposed just above and immediately adjacent to the one of the at least one lower tray from the receiving position to the upper position.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A conveyor, comprising:
a plurality of receiving trays arranged in a vertical direction and each having a receiving surface by which a medium is received;
a conveyance mechanism configured to convey the medium such that medium is selectively received by one of the receiving surfaces of the receiving trays; and
a support supporting the receiving trays,
wherein at least one receiving tray, except a lowermost one of the receiving trays that is disposed at the lowest position, is supported by the support so as to be selectively positioned at one of a receiving position at which the at least one receiving tray receives the medium conveyed by the conveyance mechanism and an upper position at which a height level of a downstream end of the medium in a conveyance direction thereof received by the receiving surface is higher than that when the at least one receiving tray is positioned at the receiving position,
wherein at least one lower tray, except an uppermost one of the receiving trays that is disposed at the highest position, includes a tray body that forms the receiving surface and a protruding portion attached to the tray body so as to be selectively positioned at one of a protruding position at which the protruding portion protrudes from the receiving surface and a retracted position at which a protrusion amount of the protruding portion from the receiving surface is smaller than that when the protruding portion is positioned at the protruding position, and
wherein the conveyor further comprises a force transmitting mechanism for effectuating at least one of (a) a retracting movement of the protruding portion of one of the at least one lower tray caused by an upward movement of an adjacent upper tray which is disposed just above and immediately adjacent to the one of the at least one lower tray and (b) the upward movement caused by the retracting movement, the retracting movement being a movement in which the protruding portion of the one of the at least one lower tray moves from the protruding position to the retracted position, the upward movement being a movement in which the adjacent upper tray moves from the receiving position to the upper position.

2. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein the force transmitting mechanism is configured to effectuate at least one of (c) a first return movement of the protruding portion of the one of the at least one lower tray caused by a second return movement of the adjacent upper tray and (d) the second return movement caused by the first return movement, the first return movement being a movement in which the protruding portion of the one of the at least one lower tray moves from the retracted position to the protruding position, the second return movement being a movement in which the adjacent upper tray moves from the upper position to the receiving position.

3. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein, when the protruding portion is positioned at the protruding position, the protruding portion faces an end of the medium in the conveyance direction received by the receiving surface.

4. The conveyor according to claim 3 , wherein a hindering member is provided for the at least one lower tray except the uppermost one of the receiving trays, the hindering member being configured to hinder removal of the medium from the receiving surface in a direction orthogonal to both of the vertical direction and the conveyance direction.

5. The conveyor according to claim 3 , wherein a position of the protruding portion in the conveyance direction with respect to the tray body is changeable.

6. The conveyor according to claim 5 , wherein the force transmitting mechanism includes an extending member extending in the conveyance direction so as to be held in contact with the protruding portion irrespective of the position of the protruding portion with respect to the tray body.

7. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one receiving tray except the lowermost one of the receiving trays is supported by the support so as to be pivotable about a first axis extending in a direction orthogonal to both of the vertical direction and the conveyance direction.

8. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein the protruding portion is supported by the tray body so as to be pivotable about a second axis extending in a direction orthogonal to both of the vertical direction and the conveyance direction.

9. The conveyor according to claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one receiving tray except the lowermost one of the receiving trays is configured to be selectively positioned at one of a first upper position as the upper position and a second upper position, as the upper position, at which the height level of the downstream end of the medium is higher than that when the at least one receiving tray is positioned at the first upper position, and
wherein the force transmitting mechanism includes a force-transmission prohibiting member configured such that, when the adjacent upper tray moves from the receiving position to the first upper position, the force-transmission prohibiting member does not prohibit effectuation of the retracting movement of the protruding portion of the one of the at least one lower tray caused by the upward movement of the adjacent upper tray, so that the protruding portion of the one of the at least one lower tray is moved from the protruding position to the retracted position and such that, when the adjacent upper tray moves from the first upper position to the second upper position, the force-transmission prohibiting member prohibits the effectuation of the retracting movement caused by the upward movement, so that the protruding portion of the one of the at least one lower tray is kept positioned at the retracted position without being moved.

10. The conveyor according to claim 1 , wherein at least a part of a projective area formed by projecting, in the vertical direction, the receiving surface of each of the at least one lower tray on an imaginary plane orthogonal to the vertical direction overlaps a projective area formed by projecting, in the vertical direction, the receiving surface of any one of the receiving trays disposed above said each of the at least one lower tray.

11. A conveyor, comprising:
a plurality of receiving trays arranged in a vertical direction and each having a receiving surface by which a medium is received;
a conveyance mechanism configured to convey the medium such that the medium is selectively received by one of the receiving surfaces of the receiving trays; and
a support supporting the receiving trays,
wherein at least one receiving tray, except a lowermost one of the receiving trays that is disposed at the lowest position, is supported by the support so as to be selectively positioned at one of a receiving position at which the at least one receiving tray receives the medium conveyed by the conveyance mechanism and an upper position at which a height level of a downstream end of the medium in a conveyance direction thereof received by the receiving surface is higher than that when the at least one receiving tray is positioned at the receiving position,
wherein at least one lower tray, except an uppermost one of the receiving trays that is disposed at the highest position, includes a proximal portion which defines a part of the receiving surface and a distal portion which is located downstream of the proximal portion in the conveyance direction and which defines the rest of the receiving surface,
wherein the distal portion includes a protruding portion protruding from the rest of the receiving surface and is pivotally attached to the proximal portion so as to be selectively positioned at one of

Assignees

• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Hirata Kenichi
• Okumura Masayuki
• Chikamoto Tadanobu
• Yamamoto Hideki

Classifications

• B65H2405/332

  Superposed compartments · CPC title

• B65H2405/36

  Multiple support · CPC title

• B65H31/02 Primary

  with stationary end support against which pile accumulates · CPC title

• B65H2801/27

  Devices located downstream of office-type machines · CPC title

• B65H39/11

  in superposed carriers · CPC title